{"id":24067,"date":"2025-01-10T13:52:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T20:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-land-holders-submit-50-page-response-to-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:15","slug":"free-land-holders-submit-50-page-response-to-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-land-holders-submit-50-page-response-to-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Land Holders submit 50-page response to lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patrick
Patrick Pipkin poses at his residence outside of Mancos on Oct. 16. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A little over a month after the federal government filed a lawsuit for the Free Land Holders\u2019 \u201cunlawful\u201d claim of 1,400 acres of Forest Service land outside Mancos, they submitted a 50-page response.<\/p>\n

The Free Land Holder Committee turned it in a little before closing time on Jan. 2, which was their deadline for filing a response to the suit, said a clerk at the U.S. District Court in Denver who scanned in the lengthy response, and asked not to be named.<\/p>\n

The 50 pages were turned in on 8-by-16-inch paper and almost entirely handwritten.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say what happens next,\u201d the clerk said.<\/p>\n

U.S. attorneys will communicate with Patrick Pipkin and Bryan Hammon, the two Free Land Holders named in the case, and the suing party \u2013 the U.S. government \u2013 will likely file a response, the clerk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spiritually discerned man using the graciously-gifted name :patrick:-Leroy:Pipkin is not consenting or waving any unalienable granted rights to the alleged inferior court jurisdiction in any form,\u201d the first page of the response reads.<\/p>\n

It then goes on to present the group\u2019s \u201cperfected claim upon land which includes preexisting, inherited and granted rights and claims including but not limited to land patents, surface water, ditches, tributaries, fences, cattle grazing, and roads, farming and cultivating the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

It cited the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and said their claim is within the boundaries of land seceded to \u201cThe United States of America\u201d in that treaty.<\/p>\n

Notice the capital \u201ct\u201d in The.<\/p>\n

In a Nov. 20 email to The Journal<\/em>, one ambassador from a shared Free Land email address said, \u201cWe are also in possession of certain certified public records which clearly show the specific disputed lands being conveyed back to the Republic, not to the United States, not to United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group holds there are three Americas at play: The United States of America, the United States of America and United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens may want review their 28 USC 1746<\/a> (1) which proves there are two different \u201cat-law\u201d legislative titles, \u201cUnited States\u201d and \u201cUnited States of America,\u201d of which neither are \u201cThe United States of America\u201d as is perpetually settled in Law,\u201d they said in an email.<\/p>\n

They went on to cite 28 USC 3002 (15)(a)<\/a> \u201cwhich proves that United States is a federal corporation,\u201d and another doctrine (Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States<\/a> | 318 U.S. 363 (1943)), that says \u201ccorporations acting as governments \u2026 only have the rights of any other corporations in commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response they filed quoted many maxims, like \u201cFirst in time equity prevails\u201d and \u201cWhat is first is truest; and what comes first in time, is best in law.\u201d<\/p>\n

It highlighted that on Dec. 15, the claim was \u201cresolved forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving received no valid equitable response in a timely manner provided to the FLHC free land holders, an equitable estoppel under well-settled land law now prevents further challenges or claims,\u201d the response read.<\/p>\n

They chose Dec. 15 because it was 63 days after their initial posted claim, on Oct. 12, which covers the threshold for \u201cthe customary 61 days public notice for a lawful land claim,\u201d they wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

The group had said, via email, that \u201cwhen, or if, someone comes forward with a superior claim to this land by December 15th, 2024, and their claim is evidenced-in-law by a title with a superior quality to that of the FLHC, then the FLHC will simply withdraw its claim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the honorable and equitable thing to do,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The response goes on to define terms, like \u201cFree Land Holder,\u201d \u201cExclusive Equity\u201d and \u201cPerfected Claim,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n

They reference the Geneva Bible of 1560 and include several \u201ckey verses of interest,\u201d and refer, several times, to a book from 1836 called Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence<\/em> by Joseph Story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis statement reinforces the idea that public authorities and lower jurisdictions are strictly bound by the powers granted to them by the rule of law,\u201d they wrote under a section called \u201cconclusion\u201d on the final page.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cannot act beyond those powers, especially when acting without a lawful obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Patrick
Patrick Pipkin behind the spread of treaties and paperwork that he says proves the Free Land Holder Committee\u2019s lawful claim to the land. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

mostly hand written, on 8×16 paper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,83,29,549,2658],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter","tag-united-states-forest-service","tag-united-states-of-america"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78383,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24067\/revisions\/78383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24067"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}